''Get Millie Black'' is a British television series created by writer Marlon James. It is his first. Developed by Motive Pictures, it appears on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in the United Kingdom and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

in the United States. The series first premiered on

on 25 November 2024 and was later shown on

from 5 March 2025.

Premise

Jamaican-born detective Millie-Jean Black is forced out of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...

, and she returns home to join the Jamaican Police Force. She and her partner, Curtis, investigate missing person cases, and their lives are up-ended when one of their investigations crosses paths with another that brought Scotland Yard detective Luke Holborn to

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

Cast and characters

Tamara Lawrance Tamara Naomi Lawrance (born 1994)Bowie-Sell, Daisy ''WhatsOnStage''. 14 February 2017. is a British actress. She is known for her performances as Prince Harry's republican girlfriend in the 2017 BBC television film ''King Charles III'', and as ...

as Millie-Jean Black *

Joe Dempsie Joe Dempsie (born ) is an English actor, best known for his roles as Chris Miles in the E4 teen comedy-drama '' Skins'' (2007–2008) and Gendry Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2013; 2017–2019). Dempsie's earlier acting credits i ...

as Luke Holborn *

Anjli Mohindra Anjli Mohindra () is an English stage, screen and voice-over actress and writer. She is best known for her television roles as Rani Chandra in the ''Doctor Who'' spin-off '' The Sarah Jane Adventures'' (2008–2011) and would-be suicide bomber ...

as Meera Thakur * Gershwyn Eustache Jnr as Curtis * Chyna McQueen as Hibiscus * Nestor Aaron Absera as Corsica * Peter John Thwaites as Freddie Somerville

Episodes

Production

In December 2021, it was announced that Marlon James was writing and executive producing his first television series, ''Get Millie Black'' for

and

, produced by Motive Pictures. Shortly before the start of production,

Tanya Hamilton Tanya Hamilton (born in Spanish Town, Jamaica) is an American film director and producer. She came to the United States at the age of eight, and settled in Maryland with her mother. She attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Cooper Union f ...

was hired to direct, and starring roles were announced for

, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, and Chyna McQueen. Filming began in May 2022, starting in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

for about three months before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Marlon James adapted his own short story for the limited series, basing the character Shirley Dillion-James on his mother.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Get Millie Black'' has an approval rating of 100% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned a score of 79 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called it "a clever, unsettling crime drama that’s packed with excellent performances...This isn’t ''

Death in Paradise ''Death in Paradise'' is a crime drama, crime television series created by Robert Thorogood, starring Ben Miller (Series 1–3), Kris Marshall (Series 3–6), Ardal O'Hanlon (Series 6–9), Ralf Little (Series 9–13) and Don Gilet (2024 Speci ...

''. But if you’re OK with a little more blood and a little less whimsy, you may find it just as good – or even better." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said, "the outstanding performances and the crimes in this setting make the show unique," calling it a "gritty and explosive

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

." ''

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...

'' described it as "an intense watch and a rare look at the societal tensions in Jamaica's underworld," but said "the series does miss a beat when it comes to the true crime formula." ''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

'' said it was a show " ing everything right," adding, " hecharacters are vivid, unpredictable in a human way and perfectly played. The five-part series feels original, not quite like anything we’ve seen before," comparing it to the works of

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{HBONetwork Shows 2024 American television series debuts 2024 American television series endings 2020s American crime drama television series 2025 British television series debuts 2025 British television series endings 2020s British crime drama television series Channel 4 crime television shows Channel 4 television dramas HBO television dramas British English-language television shows Television series by Home Box Office Television shows filmed in Jamaica Television shows set in Jamaica Works by Marlon James